How to Create a Successful Digital Culture?

Too often, leaders believe that technology is something that experts in IT should only handle. Yet, a digital transformation involves the entire team. We're at a stage in the digital revolution wherein every individual is technologically competent to some degree. So, when you implement a digital transformation, the focus should be on becoming "digitally mature" and fine-tuning rather than implementing a complete overhaul.

Every employee in your organization probably uses technology in some manner, so one of the critical factors in creating a digital culture is transparency. To achieve transparency, leadership must communicate key changes and developments with their team through blogs, forums, social media platforms, or apps like Slack. These channels increase communication and transparency within the company, ensuring everyone is on the same page and has a direct line of communication with leadership to provide feedback.

Employees who feel involved in digital transformation are more likely to embrace it. Digital culture is one where employees in every department have a say in what works and what doesn't.

Employees are also far more productive when they work with each other rather than against or in isolation (aka silos). Teamwork has always been essential, but how employees collaborate in today's digital world is changing. Employees in multiple locations or working remotely must be able to connect and collaborate on projects easily. While there are now many tools designed to connect people through video meetings, real-time messaging, and content sharing, these tools aren't effective unless employees are encouraged to use them and are proficient. In a digital culture, leadership must provide training on these tools and promote their use.

Why is collaboration so important?

Collaboration improves productivity - According to research by IDC, the cost of not being able to find the right information at the right time is about $3,300 per employee. This inability to access data generally occurs when information is siloed within different communication environments. Collaboration tools combine information into a unified environment, helping eliminate lost time and integrating workflows.

Collaboration improves customer service - Collaborative software is also highly effective at improving customer service. Employees can access files in real-time and resolve issues quickly or direct calls to the right person if need be.

Collaboration eliminates silos - There's no room for silos in an influential digital culture. In fact, creative thinking and sharing of knowledge are crucial aspects of digitization.

• For example, if IT and customer service were to interact, they could offer better feedback on how technology can be used to enhance the customer experience.
• If marketing and sales worked closely together, they could develop a unified and consistent message to potential customers.

In addition to providing the right tools, leaders can boost a company's collaborative spirit by engaging their employees in team-building exercises. Doing so will allow employees to start seeing their co-workers as individuals rather than their designated company labels. As they empathize with each other and develop better relationships, they will naturally bring that collaborative spirit into the workplace.

We touched on the importance of training employees to use collaborative tools. Still, a digital transformation culture also requires a company-wide training and development program that addresses all levels of technology. Not all employees need to be a specialist in implementing digital strategies; however, every employee needs a basic understanding of how a digital transformation will impact their role. Meanwhile, others may need more specialized training. You can structure a series of digital training programs to meet all requirements so your employees can use technology efficiently and confidently, thus improving productivity and employee satisfaction.

Consider providing an online Learning Management System which allows employees to access digital training/knowledge at their leisure. They may want to go back to it whenever they feel the need for an upgrade in skills or when a project requires a specific set of digital competencies.

"Aversion to risk" is ranked as one of the top three barriers to creating a thriving digital culture. That's because a digital transformation culture requires employees to take some risks, such as experimenting with digital trends that can benefit your organization, either now or in the future. In today's fast-paced environment, pushing your employees to take risks and try new things – without punishing failures – is one of the best ways to ensure you create a digital culture and maintain a competitive advantage. However, it's only achievable if employees are empowered with the skills, mindset, and technical abilities to take advantage of the tools available.

There are several ways leaders can encourage risk-taking. You can provide incentives to develop new and innovative ideas that benefit the company. Another common approach is to bring in external talent from the digital world to help train employees or coach your organization on ways to generate new ideas and disruptive patterns of thinking.

Leaders can also empower frontline workers to use the information to make some decisions without approval. For instance, allowing customer service reps to resolve customer issues and offer discounts without management sign-off can improve the customer experience. This begins with trust and making employees feel comfortable enough to take some risks.

Speaking of customers, a digital culture must be customer oriented. Everything your employees do should be geared toward enhancing the customer experience. Today's customers expect quick inquiries, personalized communication, and easy transactions. We have the technology to make that happen, but the customer experience can suffer without a digital culture.

Creating a customer-centric digital culture begins by encouraging employees in all areas to make decisions based on "how this impacts our customers." With today's digital tools, we can collect information to anticipate buying patterns and tailor customer interactions, but it's not effective unless employees are trained to use this data.

Silos refer to parallel parts of the organizational chart that don't intersect. As mentioned above, the problem with these silos is that they prevent information sharing or collaboration between departments (see Create a Collaborative Spirit). Digitization can help eliminate this problem by making information available in a centralized environment, but again, employees must be trained and encouraged to access and use this data. In a digital culture, the siloed mindset must also be changed. Instead of making decisions based on the narrow focus of each department, employees need to see the big picture and how decisions impact the entire organization.

Leaders can break down silos by communicating the overall vision of the company, as well as specific company-wide goals. Using data to create transparency is also effective. For example, sharing customer databases, including employee feedback, can help them see how customers engage with the company and what issues might need to be addressed. Another way to change siloed thinking is to create teams that include employees from many different areas to address problems or develop new ideas.